Germany overwhelms porous Brazilian defense

Germany poured in the goals Tuesday to hand Brazil its heaviest World Cup loss ever with an astounding 7-1 rout in the semifinals that stunned the host nation.

Miroslav Klose scored a record-setting 16th career World Cup goal in a five-goal spurt in the first half as Brazil’s defense was torn apart.

The Germans reached their eighth final and will face either Argentina or the Netherlands on Sunday at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Previously, Brazil’s biggest World Cup loss was 3-0 to France in the 1998 final. This matched their biggest ever mrgin of defeat in any competition, equaling a 6-0 loss to Uruguay in 1920 in the South American championship, the predecessor of the Copa America..

“We wanted to make the people happy ... unfortunately we couldn’t,” Brazil defender David Luiz said. “We apologize to all Brazilians.”

It’s also Brazil’s first loss in a competitive match on home soil since 1975, when Peru won 3-1 at the very same Mineirao Stadium in the Copa America. Its last loss at home came in a friendly with Paraguay in 2002.

“We did what we thought was best,” said Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. “Please excuse us for this mistake. I’m sorry we could not get to the final.”

Brazil’s attack was weakened by the loss of Neymar, who fractured a vertebra after getting kneed in the back in the quarterfinal win over Colombia. But it was Brazil’s porous defense that was the biggest problem in the first half as the host also sorely missed suspended captain Thiago Silva.

On Tuesday, with Bernard playing as the third striker, Brazil attacked from the start. But they failed to get any solid chances, and it wasn’t long before the Germans opened up the defense and started the rout.

“The space we had was bigger than against defensive teams,” Mueller said. “We took advantage of it superbly, the opponent at some point gets broken.

“Now we have to pull it off one more time and lift the thing. We should keep our feet on the ground.”

It was Germany’s biggest World Cup win since routing Saudi Arabia 8-0 in a group match in 2002.

Klose scored his record goal in the 23rd minute, pushing him past Brazil striker Ronaldo’s 15 career World Cup goals. The German had his original shot saved, but he followed up as Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar spilled the ball, easily scoring from the rebound.